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| Agriculture in the south? The first thing I would ask you to do is to define what the South means. Where I live you'd have to go to the Florida Keys to get any farther south. But I don't consider us to be southern. Granted we do grow cotton. So maybe the South should be looked at by the crops grown. Hmmmm, the South does grow corn and that presents a problem because corn is grown all the way up into Canada. Another thing that should be considered is that just maybe the South can grow a crop that would be suited for fuel production. That could be big in the future, but my crystal ball seems to be cloudy. Maybe corn won't be the big deal in ethanol someday. The researchers say it should be something like switch grass, but if that's true it's going to take a while.
So what do I really think? I think the southern states will be engaged in profitable agriculture for many decades to come. And I think it will be over a broad spectrum of types of agriculture. Nursery plant production to beef. Water and it's availability will be extremely important in many places, especially near large population centers. Our government needs to protect ag water rights for a lot of good reasons. Desalination can be effectively used for domestic water, doesn't work too good for ag water.
Our cities need to change. We've had so much available land in this country that cities spread out all over the country side. That needs to stop or be recognized that a limit needs to be imposed. Food and fiber will be increasingly important to a growing population. The flip side is for this country to become an ever growing importer of food and fiber. Stoop labor crops are already being imported and will increase. Our cities need to be much more dense and compact as in other countries. That would save a ton of fuel. Maybe we could then do with less freeways as well. That often takes a ton of ag land permanently out of production.
Labor for the farms that survive. Our attitudes need to change. Farmers need to understand how to hire and train labor. Farming is a business. You do it for a profit. You don't do it very long without a profit. Our cities are filled with profitable businesses. City businesses that are not profitable bite the dust just like farmers. Businessmen learned a long time ago how to hire and train. Farmers have to do the same. The small farmer can still make a profit, especially with higher crop prices and even with the high production costs for fertilizer and chemicals. The small farmer will have to work hard and work smart, just as always. Pray that he doesn't catch a big injury. Hmmmm, will ag prices get so high that a farm owner will have the option to custom hire all of the field work like some owners presently do in Europe, and still make a profit? That could have profound implications on agriculture.
You say you're going to write an article? I think a book could be written on the subject. "A day without a Mexican", yep this country should get ready for that. | |
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Future of agriculture in the South?
